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- BR(ScR) Thompson B1 class 4-6-0 no. 61407.
A quality build many years ago, from the excellent Piercy Models kit, with the very fine cast wheels that were made for these kits (or they could be by Alan Harris AGH. Either way top quality wheels) and a Portescap RG7 motor/gear unit. Power collection is by the American method, where the loco collects power through it’s cast iron wheels from one rail and the tender collects from the other, with a single wire running from the tender to the motor in the loco alongside the drawbar. I find this method the most trouble free of any method of collecting current. This lovely model had been originally painted in LNER lined black as number 1059 (an Ipswich loco) with curved strengthening pieces to the corners of the running plate that only Cowlairs works carried out on Scottish locos later in their lives. Now I always try to ensure that my models are as far as possible historically correct in detail. I am 100% sure that no Ipswich loco would ever have had this modification, especially in LNER days. So the model has had to receive a new livery and identity. It has been stripped of it’s original paint and has been expertly repainted in this totally authentic new guise by John Cockcroft. Not only does she now look the part, but she also performs very well, even on the tight 5′-5″ radius curves of my test track.